"Outstanding job everybody," the radio crackles.

Back at 29 Garden, the garage is a jumble of cars as the shift change takes place and detectives and officers flood back into the building. McCarthy and Burns lead the suspect into the booking room to be processed.

There's plenty of incriminating evidence: A gray backpack found at the scene contains an assortment of electronics, including one laptop with the words "Property of Harvard University" written on it.

Detectives almost immediately hit the jackpot in the interrogation room. After being read his rights, the suspect voluntarily incriminates himself in other Harvard larcenies. Later, victims will be able to identify some of the stolen items.

By the evening's end, Dirk Q. Roderick, 41, of Mattapan will be transferred to a Cambridge police holding cell and charged with one felony, larceny in a building, and two misdemeanors, receiving stolen property over $250 and trespassing. The Criminal Investigation Division will continue its investigation in the coming days and consider additional charges.

But tonight is a time for celebration. Harvard is safer tonight, officers say. And that's what it is all about.

Third Watch

5:17 p.m.--Officer Amy DiVirgilio races towards the Quad, where a caller just reported a belligerent motorist in a blue Saab traveling the wrong way down the street.

DiVirgilio, a former Marine, came on the force last year. She's angry.

"I'd love to find him and have a little chat with him," she says. "I really don't like mean people. Anyone can make a mistake and drive the wrong way, but you have no right to be mean."

Almost every free moment of the next couple of hours will be devoted to searching for the blue Saab. Prowling near the Hi-Rise bakery, out on Mass. Ave. and down in the Square, DiVirgilio keeps watching for the car.

In the meantime, she revels in this afternoon's arrest--a foot pursuit that ended the way it's supposed to.

DiVirgilio's latest chase didn't end that way. Last weekend, a suspected bike thief outran the former Marine. Standing near Currier House, as officers fanned out across the Quad looking for the suspect, she muttered, "I'll get you."

Hiding in a nearby bush, the suspect thought DiVirgilio had spotted him and took off running. But in the ensuing foot pursuit, the thief got away.

Still, DiVirgilio has a good idea who he was, since she says she's seen his friends around the Quad in the days since.

"He'll be back," she says. "Then we'll get him."